Well, this chapter goes out to gsr4ever (my first AWESOME reviewer!) If the email account I used for my fanfic account actually existed (shh...) I would send you a very long thank you message. I didn't realize how much potential this story had until you pointed it out. So, THANKS :) It's kind of short, but its more of a connector chapter and I will (hopefully) have the actual stories up soon!

This takes place after the whole Romania issue, but I'm not going to touch that, I'm just going to assume they all made it out alive :) (and for all intents and purposes they simply took a sabbatical from work, 'cause please, its not like they won't all get hired again)

"Hey, Nell!" Deeks jogged up the steps after her. Turning and giving him a slightly surprised look, she smiled and said, "Good morning Deeks."

"Yeah, beautiful day," he said, sounding slightly distracted. "Waves were good this morning. Lots of people out. I saw some dolphins, they seemed really cheerful, you know jumping through the waves, making all those weird noises-"

"Deeks," Nell cut his rambling off with a strange look. "Do you, uh... need something?"

"Yeah," he sighed. "Yeah, I..." he trailed off, not entirely sure how to ask her. He finally settled for pulling the tattered old picture out of his wallet. "This is Michelle Madeline Brandel. The picture's about thirteen years old, so it probably won't be much help, but..."

Nell gently took the faded picture from him. The girl looked like she was about fifteen, with beautiful, long blonde hair, and troubled eyes. Startled, Nell looked up at Deeks, and into the exact same eyes. Their hair was also precisely the same shade, though that was where the resemblance ended.

Nodding slowly, Nell assured the clearly worried detective, "I'll find her."

Deeks nodded and mumbled a quick thanks before hurrying down the stairs again, leaving Nell staring curiously after him.

"If you liked it then you shoulda put a ring on it, if you liked it then you shoulda put a ring on it,"Eric sang in a quiet falsetto as he entered his sanctuary. "Don't be mad once you see that he want it. If you liked it then you shou-" He froze upon realizing that his chair was occupied by a brunette agent who was not, in fact, at her desk where she usually was.

His gray eyes met Kensi's mismatched ones. She was clearly fighting laughter.

The long silence was occasionally punctuated by a beep from one of the multiple computers scattered around the dark room.

Finally: "You didn't see anything..." he mumbled, blushing.

Kensi lost the battle. Eric's face grew even redder at her gleeful gales of laughter.

Pulling out his headphones, he shuffled over to her to turn on his computer. "Deeks get too annoying? You hiding from him up here or something?" Eric asked over her snickering.

"I'm not hiding from anyone," she retorted, still grinning at his humiliation. "I was actually waiting for you." She couldn't help the chuckle that escaped at the end of her sentence.

"You couldn't have done that down at your desk?" Eric grumbled.

"Well, if I'd known I was going to get a show..."

"You'd have brought a camera?" Eric finished for her.

Kensi snorted again. "Probably. However, I swear I will never tell anyone, if you do me a favor and promise not to tell either."

Startled by her suddenly serious tone, Eric turned to see the somber, stoic federal agent she usually personified. Mystified by her sudden change in demeanor, he raised his eyebrows and waited for her to continue.

"I need you to help me find someone," she said softly, and if Eric didn't know her better, he'd say she sounded a little nervous.

"Sure," Eric said, a little relieved. He'd been slightly worried she wanted him to hack the CIA or, worse, Hetty. Locating people was easy and significantly less illegal and dangerous. Sliding into the chair she vacated for him, he paused and looked up at her. "This is off the books, right?"

At her nod he said, "Okay, I need a name."

"Jack Louis Tailor. Tailor like the person who makes clothes, not the usual spelling. He was a marine."

Eric tried to focus on his screen instead of how tense she sounded. He'd brought up the search box and had begun typing in the name when her hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Not now, okay? When... when you have time?" Swiveling in his chair to get a better look at her face, Eric got the impression that she wasn't quite ready to face this Jack Louis Tailor.

"Okay," he agreed. "I'll let you know in a few days."

"Thank you," Kensi said softly as she left the room.

Eric watched her go, wondering who exactly this man was.

Later that night, after a long day of paperwork, the two agents were curled up on Kensi's couch, watching Top Model. Deeks would probably never confirm this theory, but he believed that the show was one of Kensi's favorites because she needed to know that there really were people out there whose biggest problems were what they were going to wear and if they had a matching purse.

"So," he began as the commercial break started. "I talked to Nell today."

Normally, Kensi would have said something sarcastic, ("So did the rest of us," came to mind) but she realized what he was trying to say. Pretending she was absorbed in the commercial for new and improved trash bags, she said, "I talked to Eric this morning."

Feeling his heavy gaze on her, she finally tore her eyes away from the TV. "We're really going to do this aren't we?" he asked.

"We already have," Kensi replied, attempting to downplay the situation. Her eyes never left his. "What do we do when we find them?" he asked. Kensi could tell he was a bit frightened by the idea that they would soon have the information they needed to find their long lost companions. She was terrified, though she'd never admit it.

Taking a deep breath she answered, "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, I suppose."

Slightly unnerved by his unwavering stare and their unusually somber conversation, she returned to the TV in time to see the introduction for the show. "Judging's starting," she commented, effectively ending the discussion, though it was a long time before she felt his intense gaze leave her.

For the rest of the night, her mind was filled with memories of her former fiance, and his with thoughts of the little girl he swore to protect.

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